The small hospital room felt like a pressure cooker, the air vibrating with the hum of the overhead fluorescent lights and the heavy, ragged breathing of two people locked in a war of wills. Dominic had refused to leave the room, standing like a dark sentinel by the window, while Marcus remained outside the door, keeping the small-town curiosity at bay.
Sarah sat on the edge of the bed, her hand tightly gripping Elena's trembling fingers.
"Elena, look at me," Sarah whispered, her voice thick with concern. "You can't keep running on lies. You're telling me it's Linus? Linus, who couldn't even look you in the eye at the harvest festival? You're a terrible liar, El. And look at him." She nodded toward Dominic. "He isn't going anywhere. He will buy this hospital, he will buy the air we're breathing, just to get an answer. If you don't do this, he'll haunt you forever."
Elena shook her head, tears blurring her vision. "If I say yes, Sarah, I'm giving him the keys to my life. He'll never let me go."
"He's already not letting you go," Sarah countered gently. "But if the test is negative, he has to leave. It's the only way to get your peace back. And if it's positive... then you have a billionaire's support for a baby you can't afford to raise alone while tending to your father. Do it for the truth, Elena. Not for him."
After what felt like an eternity of suffocating silence, Elena finally looked at Dominic. Her eyes were red, her spirit frayed. "Fine," she spat, the word tasting like poison. "Do your test. Prove yourself wrong and get out of my life."
The procedure was quick—a non-invasive prenatal paternity test—but the wait for the results, fast-tracked by Dominic's private medical team, was a slow descent into madness.
Dominic didn't pace this time. He sat in a chair opposite Elena, his eyes never leaving her face. He looked human for the first time; his hands were clasped so tightly his knuckles were white.
"Elena," he said, his voice dropping to a vulnerable, raw register. "I know you hate me right now. I know I'm the monster who crashed into your world. But I need you to know... if that doctor walks through that door and tells me that a part of me is growing inside you... I will be the happiest man on earth. I will give you the world. I'll give you a life where you never have to sell a single thing—especially not yourself—ever again."
Elena turned her head away, her jaw tight. "I don't want your world, Dominic. I want my dignity."
The door clicked open. The lead specialist, flown in by helicopter, stepped in holding a tablet. The air in the room seemed to vanish. Sarah held her breath. Marcus appeared in the doorway, his stoic face showing a flicker of anticipation.
"Mr. Thorne," the doctor said, looking between the two leads. "The results of the SNP array are conclusive. There is a 99.9% probability of paternity. The child is yours."
The silence lasted for exactly one second.
Then, Dominic Thorne—the man who had never lost his cool in a multi-billion dollar hostile takeover, the man whose face was synonymous with calculated indifference—let out a shout that echoed down the hospital corridors.
"Yes!" he roared, jumping to his feet with such force the chair flipped backward. "It's mine! My god, it's mine!"
He didn't look like a billionaire. He looked like a man possessed by pure, unadulterated joy. He punched the air, a wild, triumphant laugh breaking from his throat. He forgot the nurses, he forgot everyone, he forgot Marcus was watching. He turned toward Elena, his eyes shining with a terrifyingly bright light. "You hear that, Elena? He's a Thorne! You're carrying my child!"
But Elena didn't share his joy. The news hit her like a death sentence. As Dominic moved toward her, his arms open as if to embrace her, she recoiled, her face twisting into a mask of pure, unbridled rage.
"Don't you touch me!" she screamed, her voice raw and jagged. "You think this is a victory?"
She looked down at her stomach with a look of such profound betrayal that it stopped Dominic in his tracks.
"I don't want it," she hissed, her voice trembling with hatred. "I don't want your baby. I won't be your vessel. I won't be the mother of a Thorne. I'm going to terminate it, Dominic. I'll find a clinic, I'll find a way, and I will wipe every trace of you out of my body!"
The joy in the room died an instant, cold death.
Dominic's face transformed. The light in his eyes vanished, replaced by a darkness so deep and ancient it made Sarah whimper and move back. He stepped closer to the bed, looming over Elena until his shadow completely swallowed her. The "Beast" was back, and this time, he wasn't hiding behind a business suit or an apology.
He leaned down, his face inches from hers, his voice dropping into a lethal, terrifying whisper that felt like a cold blade against her throat.
"Listen to me very carefully, Elena," he growled, the sound vibrating in his chest. "You can hate me. You can spit on my name. You can refuse my money. But that child is the only thing in this world that belongs to me in a way no contract can ever buy. If you even think about harming a hair on that baby's head... if you so much as look at a clinic..."
He gripped the metal railing of the hospital bed, and Elena watched in horror as the steel began to groan and bend under the sheer force of his hand.
"You said you wanted to see the man I really am?" Dominic hissed. "Try to take that child from me. See what happens when I stop being a man who loves you and start being the man who owns everything you see. I will put you in a cage of gold and silk, I will guard you with an army, and I will make sure you don't take a single step without my permission until that child is born."
He reached out, his hand hovering over her abdomen, his eyes fixed on hers with a possessive, murderous intensity.
"Don't test my worst side, Elena. Because for this baby, I will burn your village to the ground and build a fortress on the ashes just to keep you inside. You are carrying my heir. And from this second on, you belong to me."
Elena stared up at him, her breath coming in short, terrified gasps. She had wanted to hurt him, but she had only succeeded in unleashing the monster she had tried to run from.